Wire reeling apparatus



Dec. 9, 1958 H. KENMORE ETAL 2,863,615

WIRE REELING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 18, 1955 United States Patent O WIRE REELING APPARATUS Herbert Kenmore, Jersey City, and Walter J. Manson, West Orange, N. J., assignors, by mesne assignments, to National-Standard Company, Niles, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application October 18, 1955, Serial No. 541,179

2 Claims. (Cl. 242-83) This invention relates to a wire reeling apparatus and more particularly it relates to a device adapted to collect wire as it comes from a temporary storage device along which it is being fed in the form of a continuously travelling horizontal helix.

A very satisfactory method and apparatus for treating wire requires that the wire be continuously formed into the shape of a horizontal helix and then treated while temporarily stored on a horizontal support which permits the lower portions of the coils of the helix to dip into treatment baths. As the helix advances the completely treated individual coils are continuously passing out of the last treating bath and must be removed. In the past the practice has been to permit a certain number of coils to accumulate, for example, the number that can be conveniently lifted by one or two men, and then cut the wire and remove the cut bundle from the end of the storage device. Thus, the collecting is laborious and tedious and requires the services of at least one man. Besides it is limited in the amount of wire that can be collected in one continuous bundle.

Among the objects of this invention is to provide a wire reeling device which works automatically and which can be constructed to collect almost any finite length of wire desired.

The objects of the invention are attained by providing at the end of the horizontal supports for the helix being treated a means lto change or curve the axis of the helix from a horizontal position to substantially a vertical position and then collecting the helix by gravity feed onto a cored platform devicel which is automatically rotated to collect the helix in the form of a core. The cored platform is removable so that after the desired amount of wire is collected (from 1A to several tons or more) the platform may be removed by mechanical equipment and may be employed as the shipping or carrying device for the bundle of wire.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a side elevational view of the device of the invention attached at the end of a wire treating machine.

Fig. 2 is an end elevational view of the device of Fig. l.

In the apparatus shown the helix of the heavy, stiff wire being treated is supported on a pair of horizontal supporting rollers 11 and 12 but a single supporting roller or other supporting means may be employed. The sup-. porting means 11 and 12 extends beyond the end of the last treating bath 13. A pair of curved rods or arms 20 and 21 are slidably mounted in a pair.of cross bars 23, 24 which are suitably supported on the top portion 14,` of the frame structure of the treating device. At the end of each rod or 21, a block 25 or 26 is adjustably fastened. Each block 25 or 26 contains two small roller devices 27, 28 rotatably mounted thereon at an angle to each other in such a way that they form an upwardly extending V between the legs of which a coil of the helix 10 is adapted to be held` 'circular platform 51 containing an opening 52 at the center thereof. Three or more uprights 53, 54, 5S (upright 55 has been partially cut away from Fig. 2) converge towards each other at the top portion and meet at 56. A loop or hook device 57 is formed at the top 56 to provide for machine lifting of the collector device. The circle dened by the three uprights 53, S4 and 55 has a diameter which is somewhat smaller than the diameter of the helix 10 so that a plurality of coils of the helix are formed on each horizontal layer of the platform 51. Three or more casters 58, 59 may also be mounted on the lower portion of the platform 51.

The collecting device 50 is removably positioned on rotatable table 60. This table 60 contains a central pin 61 which is adapted to extend through opening 52 in platform 51 to centrally position the latter on the table 60. The table 60 is rotatably mounted on the axle 62 but is additionally supported near the periphery by two rollers 70 (only one shown) and by the driving roller 80. The two rollers '70 and driving roller 80 are approximately equally spaced about the periphery of table 60. Each roller 70 is rotatably mounted in suitable bearings 71 which are supported from the floor.

The speed at which driving roller rotates to drive the table 60 is automatically determined by the switch device 40. The switch 40 comprises two movable arms 41 and 42 which in their normal position shown in Fig. l are neutral so as to maintain the speed of drive roller 80 as it is. If, however, the coil 10 of wire helix 10 expands so as to push arm 41 outwardly or if the coil 10 contracts so as to pull arm 42 outwardly microswitches are operated to electrically operate the reversible motor 82 which in turn operates the speed change device 81 to increase or decrease, as the case may be, the speed at which motor 83 drivesthe roller 80.

In operation, the wire helix as it travels off the end of the temporary storage rollers 11, 12 has one coil or more thereof supported by rollers 27, 28 held on curved rods 20, 21 so that the axis of the helix is curved at an angle of about 45 From the roller supports 27, 28 the wire passes through the switch guide 40 and thence to the collecting device 50. During the latter passage the axis of the helix is curved approximately 45 again so that the axis of the wound helix is substantially vertical. The collector device 50 is rotated at substantially the same speed as the Wire is fed thereto. If the speed of rotation of collector 50 should increase with respect to the speed of the wire the pull of the wire as the coil 10 is decreased in diameter operates switch arm 42 which causes the speed of collector 50 to decrease. If the speed of rotation of the collector device 50 should decrease relative to the speed of the wire 10 the expansion of the helix 10 at coil 10' operates switch arm 41 to cause an increase in the speed of collector 50. When 500 lbs. or more of wire is collected on device 50 the collector is removed by a mechanical lifting device and is replaced by another empty device 50. The device requires substantially no attention and provides large wire packages which are practically ready for shipping, or storage or for feeding to a wire processing apparatus.

The features and principles underlying the invention described above in connection with specific exemplica' tions will suggest to those skilled in the art many other modifications thereof. It is accordingly desired that the appended claims shall not be limited to any specific feature or details thereof.

We claim:

l. In a device for treating wire while being continuously fed and supported in the form of a rotating helix with a horizontal axis along a horizontal supporting means, the improved device for collecting the wire as it reaches the end of the horizontal supporting means, comprising a rotatable collecting device having a substantially vertical axis, means for rotating said collecting device at approximately the speed of travel of the wire of said helix, support means for movably supporting at least one turn of the wire helix position between the end of the horizontal supporting means and the axis of the collecting device, said support means including at least one arm containing rotating elements adapted to position a top portion of the said helical coil, guide means adjacent the lower portion of the horizontally supported portion of the helix adapted to hold away from the collecting device the lower portion of said one or more turns of the helix held by said support means.

2. In a device as claimed in claim 1 in which said guide means includes a pair of switch elements one on each side of said wire,'said means for rotating the collecting device comprising a drive wheel, a speed change device and a main drive, a reversible motor for controlling the speed change device, and electrical connections between said switch elements and the reversible motor to regulate the speed of the drive Wheel for the collecting device and the speed at which the wire is fed from the end of the horizontal supporting means.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,008,993 Seward Nov. 14, 1911 1,916,467 Eger July 4, 1933 2,271,416 Davis et al. Jan. 27, 1942 Bell Feb. 24, 1953 

